Since Lars Vilks’ death, a number of writers on the right wing have quoted and article I wrote here in DN 2011 and highlighted a single word: “distasteful”. That’s the only thing they read in that article. I have so far thought that a fulcitation is a trifle in a context where someone has died, but now also do Janne Josefsson, a journalist I respect, same thing. Josefsson (DN 21/10) has not bothered to read the text either, but squeezes a word out of the social media flow.
This is how it says in the article from 2011, with the headline “Can we agree that we can never be silenced by fear?”
“Shall we say it again: I am for Vilk’s right to blaspheme, both that which others hold sacred and that which I myself consider inviolable. It is a right that PEN as one of many organizations has fought for for many years. At the same moment people are silent for fear, the oxygen supply in a society is shut down, which I think everyone knows. Can we agree on that? Anyone on the other hand? That I then personally consider his patrol dog distasteful is the next question. We will take it after we have agreed on the overall principles. “
I’ll find enough still his drawing “distasteful”. But that seems to be exactly what is so difficult for some to understand: that things one dislikes oneself must be able to be said and that whoever wants something else belongs to the dangerous ones. That is the essence of freedom of expression.
I do not think that anyone with a head and a heart today will not go through how the whole Vilks-hund story was handled. But one does not have to fully sympathize with his project to realize the necessity that such can be done. You can even dislike parts of it and at the same time realize that necessity. This seems to be exactly the point that is difficult for some to understand and it is very important to understand just that. But fulcitations do not make the view clear.
Janne Josefsson answers directly:
Ola, you are right when I now see the whole quote in its context. You consider Vilk’s patrol dog distasteful but clearly defend his freedom of speech. I sincerely apologize to you. I made a mistake.
Read more:
Janne Josefsson: The musty smoke curtain hides journalists’ true view of Lars Vilk’s patrol dog
Ola Larsmo: Can we agree that we can never be silenced by fear?
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